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Most oil-rich Third World economies have had difficulty in evolving into true economically liberal societies. By owning or con-trolling twenties generated by oil, the state is able to dominate society snaking all classes and groups economically dependent on their ‘Black Gold’. Oil tends to centralize state power in the Middle East, as this commodity contributes 90% to 93% of their total foreign exchange revenue. However with the world rapidly mating new circumstances, this trend is poised for change. With the political developments within the Middle East in the recent past, it is not hard to accept the notion that by 2013 the entire Middle East region is posed to become a ‘Free Trade Zone’ (CNN, June 3, 2003). Read the rest of this entry →

Durham University received £300,000 from the US State Department for a series of projects that the US hoped would help it gather information on Iran, it has emerged.

A diplomatic cable sent to Washington by the US Embassy in London in 2008, recently released by WikiLeaks, details a string of proposals for which Durham sought funding, as well as providing a commentary on their value to the US. Read the rest of this entry →

2120 GMT: Not Worried at All (cont. — 0925 GMT). Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Hamedani has commented on the proposed march for 25 Bahman (11 February), “The seditionists (opposition leaders) are nothing but a dead corpse and we will strongly confront any of their movements. We definitely consider them as anti-revolutionary and spies, and we will strongly confront them.”

In the 30-year reign of Iran’s Islamic Republic, there have been few controversies as serious as the one surrounding the 2009 elections. The votes that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power for a second term have been challenged, not just on paper, but by citizens taking to the streets in angry protests that have only been quelled by brute force on the part of the establishment.

The government of Mr. Ahmadinejad remains unwilling to acknowledge any culpability in thedestruction of any property or the killing of more than ten or so protestors in the last few days of mourning processions, including the shooting of one of the opposition leader’s nephew. “The killing of Musavi’s nephew in the Ashura incidents is being investigated and the result will be announced soon,” Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh told the ILNA news agency. The official line is that anti-regime terrorists carried out the killings in order to discredit the regime.

It’s a long way from Iran to north-east England, but anger about the crushing of opposition protests by the Islamic regime has generated a furious row at Durham University, where one academic has condemned the British government for turning “the slaughter of innocent teenagers in Iraq and Afghanistan into an art form”.

The Western-backed Shah, who grandly styled himself as the “King of Kings”, was overthrown by the people power when they took to the streets to call for his removal. The Islamic Republic of Iran was born 30 years ago when every man, woman, young and old expressed their dismay in unison, in their total and utter disgust with the social, economic, and political situation under the Shah. They came from all walks of life: those from the fringes of urban areas to the rural population joined hands with the technocratic, academic, industrialists, students, women and children to shout out that the Shah must go. What they had not thought about was who should replace the one they wanted to see the back of. Read the rest of this entry →